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[b]Wednesday, 27 OF MARCH 1991[/b]  YEAR LXXVI - № 31.132             [b]Irineu Marinho[/b] (1876-1925)             RIO DE JANEIRO  [b][noparse]oglobo.com.br[/noparse][/b]
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[b][center]Building a New South American Economy in a Post-Visitation World[/center][/b]
[center]In a world where Washington is dying, what can the continent that relied on it most do? [/center]

The solution, at its most basic, is a simple one, according to Mr. Juan Devilla, the Bolivian Minister of Foreign Affairs, a man many of our readers who have followed the news in the past week will be well aware of. 

They work together. 

The model they plan to use already exists elsewhere in Europe. Devastated by the Second World War, Europe west of the Iron Curtain sought to recover from the War - and prevent it from ever happening again - by making such violence utterly impossible. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), proposed by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in 1951, was arguably the first major step in this direction, and sought to integrate Germany's coal and steel industries with those of the rest of Western Europe (and them with each other other) so heavily that none of the involved countries could wage war on another, all in the face of massive ultranationalist opposition in France. Regardless, the French Assembly passed the measure, and so the ECSC was formed. Following a scant seven years later was the Treaty of Rome, which took principles of economic integration much further to form the European Economic Community (EEC) all the way from intertwined industries to striving for a customs union, to common economic policies (especially standardization) and striving for a single market. This, Mr. Devilla says, is what the Americas need to strive for, and as of 12:00PM UTC today, it's what they will be striving for; formally, at least. 

In reality, such plans have been in the works for months, maybe even longer. Mr. Devilla has worked with every government on the continent, all the way up to Belize and Guatemala, to ensure that plans were finalized before anything was released to the press. 

"It's a shame," he explained, "that we must worry about retaliation simply because we want to succeed, but we won’t allow anyone to intimidate us.”

It’s equally true, however, that the American continents haven’t been left entirely high and dry. OTAN member nations have become major investors in Latin American economies with the sudden absence of American companies and government money. It’s undeniable that their assistance has been invaluable in maintaining some degree of stability, and ensuring continued economic growth, but as Mr. Devilla puts it, there’s so much more that can be done, and it’d be downright foolish for us to simply rest on our laurels when there [i]is[/i] so much more to be done. With the devastation of the United States, there is an enormous agricultural niche for South-Central America to fill. Vast mineral resources are available for exploitation, too, from materials we might think of as basic like silver or tin or copper to components for more complicated things, like those used to make superconductors. These, and many more, are resources Mr. Devilla and the diplomats and economists he’s working with hope to make available to the global market - but through local companies and governments, not through exploitation and theft by Washington and the corporations that bribe its politicians.

There are more than just natural, earth-made resources to access, though, as anyone knows. South America is home to one of the largest anomalous zones in the world; by some measures, the second largest contiguous zone in the world, after the central United States. Compared to the United States, though, far more of this zone is uninhabited, leaving it ripe for use. What Mr. Devilla emphasizes, therefore, is that close international cooperation and regulation would be required to take full advantage of this anomalous zone. Without close cooperation in the future, the Amazon Rainforest Anomalous Zone (ARAZ), in other words, would become an unproductive mess at best, and a flashpoint for massive military conflict at worst, potentially to the point of causing nuclear armageddon.

The organization’s reasons for existing are well-established, then, and are well-supported both by historical precedent (in the form of the EEC and its predecessor organizations) - but what is the plan for this new international community, and what will it be called.

“In Spanish, it is the [i]Unión de Naciones Sur-Centro-Centroamericanas[/i]. In Portuguese, it is the [i]União das Nações Sul-Centro-Americanas[/i].” He explains, additionally pointing out that the organization intends to use both languages for its business, though it will primarily rely on Spanish for day-to-day work, and will provide documentation in several languages used both within the organization proper and abroad. The official acronym, somewhat obviously, is UNASUCA, for both Spanish and Portuguese languages, and construction for the organization’s headquarters is already underway in São Paulo, the third largest city in the world by population, after Tokyo and New York-Newark. Until it is complete, large sections of office buildings in the city have been leased out for temporary use; construction is estimated to take approximately two years.

They don't plan to wait for the complex to be constructed to get to work, however. Work is already underway on drafting common economic policies, from food and safety standards to more unified rail gauges. Trade barriers are being gradually removed to allow for the eventual creation of a single, common market, and border and immigration treaties are being adjusted to allow for freer movement of people, and talk is already underway of integrated justice systems. The basic structure of the organization and its organs, in fact, have already been quietly put in place, from independently appointed experts to ensure the objectives of this new organization are being met (and are being met in ways consistent with its ethical standards) to councils and committees of ministers and representatives from its constituent nations to ensure that their interests are being met - and, radically, to vote on measures that the organization might take. 

Mr. Davilla, the architect of UNASUCA, is aware that this might all seem like little more than talk, even though the constituent nations have already confirmed their participation (Brazil's senate, the last to finalize its decision, confirmed its intent earlier this week).

That's why he's come to us with a specific proposal, what he dubs the "Amazon Rehabilitation Project", a massive infrastructural initiative to render the ARAZ traverable and, perhaps more importantly, industrially viable. Initial clearing and preparation efforts are already underway as the member militaries secure the expected infrastructure routes necessary for further construction against hostile mutants and other unnatural hazards, up to and including systematic "meter-by-meter" sequesters and occasionally even purges of those anomalous lifeforms deemed to dangerous to earthbound life to be allowed to survive. Carefully prepared defoliants, selective against anomalous foliage, are likewise being air-dropped into sectors intended for development where the flora is equally dangerous, and plans have been drawn up to secure and harvest the now incredibly valuable antigravity materials for UN-affiliated scientists to examine. If all goes well, Mr. Davilla explains, South and Central America will finally be an economic force to be reckoned with. 

[b]Note:[/b] the full list of member nations is being continually updated on our website, but presently includes Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, Nicaragua. 
 Observers, those with limited participatory status and diplomatic involvement, include the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom. 
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